Been kinda doing nothing with the truck for the last couple of weeks, still waiting to hear if I am gonna get warranty or not.

I did manage to strip the new HP housing tonight so I can get it under the truck one of these days, I am a little disappointed, I was told it had 4.10 gears in it, but it has 3.50 gears. Now I still have to buy a new carrier, o-well. Next week I am gonna start buying parts to start the axle swap, putting the HP in front and the explorer axle in the rear. Prolly gonna inboard the springs on the rear and build a anti wrap, drive shaft guard also.

Something else, I cut my sliders off the truck, time for some new ones, ones that hold air......

Alright....I ordered the parts to get it going. I have gears and carrier coming and the extra parts so i can install them. I also ordered a 8.8 swap kit, weld in bungs, limit straps, and 8.8 diff cover from ruff stuff and picked up some DOM for steering and some angle for my radius arms to guard the brake lines. I will be busy this weekend, hope to get the truck in the gagrage Thursday and try to get the HP 44 under it this weekend.

Alright....I ordered the parts to get it going. I have gears and carrier coming and the extra parts so i can install them. I also ordered a 8.8 swap kit, weld in bungs, limit straps, and 8.8 diff cover from ruff stuff and picked up some DOM for steering and some angle for my radius arms to guard the brake lines. I will be busy this weekend, hope to get the truck in the gagrage Thursday and try to get the HP 44 under it this weekend.

sounds like shits about to get done lol. if i wasnt going to tennessee tomorrow through monday, id come out and help

Old axle is out of the truck, track bar mount cut off, knuckles off, bearings out and swapped to the new housing. Gears are set up in the HP, now to put it under the truck and weld on the track bar mount.

Yup, the new HP axle has the wedges cast on. Hope it bolts up, the wedges are 6" further apart on the HP housing. I will find out in a while....gonna sling some paint on the wedge areas first and let it dry.

Yup, the new HP axle has the wedges cast on. Hope it bolts up, the wedges are 6" further apart on the HP housing. I will find out in a while....gonna sling some paint on the wedge areas first and let it dry.

nice, soooo uhhh what are you doing with your old housing with the wedges on it? huh, huh?

Well after waiting 4 or so weeks to hear back about my warranty on my gears, unable to get ahold of anyone to find out what the fawk was going on I decided to just go ahead and buy the stuff to build the HP 44. So I ordered up new gears and carrier, then picked up some 1.5" dia DOM for a new tie rod, some weld in bungs and a few other odds and ends an got started last weekend. Still don't know about the LP gears, but o-well, maybe I can sell them if I ever see them again.

Anyway, finished it all up today, looks good and drives good too.

here are the pictures!

full width...little off center, bout 3/4", shoulda spend more time centering it. I might have the adjustment in my heims, other wise I can shorten my track bar to fix it, O-well, it'll still wheel the same. The front is about 2" wider overall than the rear, I will run it this way for a while.

New to me HP

Limit straps I just put on, 18" long

My fix for my brake line guard, 1" angle. Looks good IMO and should work great.

Then just a few so we all remember how it looks....beat and bruised

4WD works.....snow was deep!

Next on the todo list is put the explorer axle under it, inboard the springs, lose the blocks. I ordered a 8.8 ruffstuff diff cover and axle swap kit. I am also in process of making some new spring hangers. Gonna start this in a few weeks.